Scheme Bribes Teenage Girls With Shopping
Vouchers If They Submit To HPV Vaccine

Teenage girls are being enticed with shopping vouchers for having
the cervical cancer jab.

Girls aged 16 to 18 are being given £45 of vouchers if
they complete an inoculation course against the HPV virus.

A national campaign to vaccinate girls aged 12 to 18 has been
criticised over fears it may encourage promiscuity and raise pregnancy
rates, and uptake has been low among girls aged 16 to 18.

Now, the £22,500 pilot scheme gives young women Love2shop
vouchers if they have three injections. No parental consent is
needed.

Bosses at NHS Birmingham East and North, which is carrying out
the pilot, said it has real benefits for health. The
project could be rolled out across the country. But campaigners
claim the scheme amounts to bribery.

Norman Wells, director of Family And Youth Concern, said the
project was a serious misuse of taxpayers money.

One mother, who did not want to be named, said she was appalled
when her daughter, 17, was offered the unethical vouchers.